Saturday, December 19, 2009

Do Something Good!...AND...A Blog Face-lift

Hey all you horse lovers!....finish up your Christmas shopping for your horse friends or just treat yourself and buy "Beyond the Homestretch" by Lynn Reardon, Executive Director of LOPE (LoneStar Outreach to Place Ex-Racers). The stories are moving and part of the proceeds go to rehabilitating and finding homes for the former race horses! Having personally met Lynn and some of the LOPE horses, I can say wholeheartedly that Lynn and LOPE are amazing! Tis the season for giving...so BUY THE BOOK TODAY at the LOPE site or on Amazon.com. Learn more about LOPE or make a donation to help care for ex-racehorses waiting for new homes by visiting the organization's website.
-LOPE website
-Amazon.com

Just so you have an idea about how special these horses can be I would like to share the shrunk-down version of my most personal experience with off-the-track horses (and I have several). I proudly introduce Scout, my 12 year old off-the-track Quarter Horse.


I first met Scout one day after he was purchased (in trade) from a Boy Scout camp in TX by some friends of mine. He was 6 years old and full of fire, which I now recognize was fear and pure adrenaline. My husband got to see him actually unload himself in a blaze of glory from the Boy Scout wrangler's trailer and proceed to furiously gallop around the ranch arena for most of the day. Over the next few months, my job was to form a relationship and develop a language with Scout for our friends, who were his owners. I quickly learned that he was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. He wasn't terribly spooky, but he did want to run away from everything, including me on his back. He could not stand still, fed on the actions and emotions of the other horses, would not pay a bit of attention to his rider, hated to canter but loved to race, had terrible feet (club foot, dishy front feet, was sore in all 4, couldn't keep shoes on to save his life), and was an all around nervous, emotional wreck...evident by the constant grinding of his teeth when in unfamiliar territory or situations. He also was THE most difficult horse I have ever had the pleasure of trying to catch...he would gallop away from me to the complete opposite end of the VERY lengthy pasture and back. He once ran away with me at a HUGE public trail ride and I have not put him in that situation since, a promise made to him and to myself. He has bucked me off twice, the second time I ended up in the hospital and couldn't get off the couch for 3 days due to the SEVERE bruising, swelling, and pain from landing on my hip. This horse had been through the ringer when he got to me and has since put me through the ringer. But I would not give up on him. His kind eye and desire to please showed me there was another side of him...a side I wanted to bring out, if for no other reason to make his life better for him. In other words, I fell in love with this horse and knew I had to have him as my own. I bought him from my friends about 6 months or so of his arrival at their ranch. I have since spent countless hours retraining Scout how to be more confident and how to be my partner....that humans aren't all bad. His life prior to us was on the track where he hated to race and then with a "barrell racer/trainer" who totally destroyed what was left of his dignity and trust in humans. Not to mention that she left him with a permanent, though not totally debilitating, injury to his sacrum and then dumped him at the Boy Scout camp to reclaim a few dollars in tax credit. Now, Scout is my, literally, next to my hubby anyway, my best friend. I know him better than I know myself almost and he has changed me as much as I have changed him. He has taught me more about horses than any clinician or trainer. He has made me so much more confident in the saddle (as I had to learn how to ride his horrible, jack-hammer-of-a-trot) and a more confident trainer....especially when it comes to fixing problems and helping a horse get through an issue. He can now do a few dressage moves, canter w ithout feeling the need to buck or kick, play with me "at liberty", trail ride, pony other horses, be ridden bareback at any gait, and he has even carried some kids for lessons. We have also worked cows together, practiced playing a little polocrosse, and done a few large group mounted drills. He is a completely different horse than the one who bolted out of that trailer into a strange arena a few years back and I am so blessed to be his human.

Me and Scout, circa 2004


This is exactly how the horses at LOPE are and/or can be as well. A few of LOPE's associates (people who either adopted from or donated horses to LOPE) donated their horses to the children's camp where I formerly worked. One success story that came of this, is that of a gorgeous 16.2H gelding named Marquee Bill. He was 3 when he was donated to camp and he is the most easy going, well-mannered 3 year old I have ever ridd en. He is a gem and has the personality to go with it. He loves humans and is one of the friendliest, most curious horses imaginable. He is now 6 and carrying trail riders and camp staff on the tough, rocky trails of the TX Hill Country as well as in arena exercises and games. If my husband would have allowed, I would have stolen him for myself...he is my camp favorite.

So, with all that said, typically, these OTTBs and QHs have huge hearts of gold and are willing to give us all they have if we are, in turn, willing to meet them half way. Do yourself a favor and consider, at some point in your life, and if you have the time, knowledge, and inclination for properly training a horse, adopting one of these amazing animals. Or at the very least give a little something (financially, feed, equipment, time) to help care for these horses while they wait for new forever homes. You won't regret it...I haven't.

Also on that note...this post and some other happenings of late, have inspired me to change the format and title of this blog. I will be expanding the blog to include stories regarding my other horse experiences past and present (funny, sad, inspiring, etc.), experiences of people I know and hear about, things I learn from my horses and horses I have crossed paths with, and all things horse (and some things not). It will not be a ranting blog, but lighthearted and sincere...about the "great" things in a world spent with horses and life, in general. I have so much more I want to share and I hope you will comment with your own experiences, stories, and life lessons with horses too. Stay tuned!

Friday, December 18, 2009

A New Four-Legged Friend

Bailey has a new 4-legged friend these days. Since the two older dogs aren't very fond of the younger one, Kenai, Bailey has graciously adopted him as our fourth horse. And Kenai is delighted! The two of them play non-stop across the fence and in and around the pasture. They chase each other...darting right, then left. When all this first started going on a couple of weeks ago, I almost had a heart attack and was trying to get Kenai out of the pasture in a total state of panic. He kept looking at me...confused, wondering why I was getting upset when all he wanted to do was play. After watching more closely at what was going on, I became amazed at how gentle and knowingly playful they are with each other. Bailey has, on a couple of occasions, acted like she was going to kick at Kenai, but her aim and force is exactly tempered so that she barely flicks his thick winter coat and then quickly recoils her leg. Kenai is the same with her...he never even acts like he is going to really bite her, but rather he opens his mouth a little in excitement and plays with her much like one horse would play with another and I have even caught him licking her on the nose. As for Bailey, one of the pictures below actually shows her nuzzling and mouthing Kenai's shoulder. They are too funny. I finally managed to capture some photos and video of this blossoming new friendship. Don't worry, for all you who are faint of heart, I am always around when the playing ensues and I NEVER let it get out of hand....not that it has ever come close. Proof that prey animals and predators can be friends!...and I threw in a couple of snaps of the horses on a gorgeous sunny winter day after we got a few inches of snow.


Bailey after munching on some snow



Bailey and Ranger enjoying a very cold, but sunny day


Bailey and Kenai playing